A Beam of Light

July 6, 2015
Both personal and professional problems confound Insp. Salvo Montalbano in bestseller Camilleri’s delightful 19th mystery featuring the Sicilian policeman (after Game of Mirrors). First, Salvatore di Marta, the owner of the biggest supermarket in Vigàta, reports that his wife, Loredana, has been robbed and kissed in an unusual assault. Second, an unused little house on a farmer’s barren field suddenly acquires a new door that the farmer didn’t put there. Finally, Mariangela “Marian” De Rosa, the owner of a new art gallery, provides an unexpected romance for Montalbano that complicates his long relationship with Livia Burlando. Marian is also the source of a puzzle involving an art purchase. Underlings Mimì Augello and Fabio Fazio lend assistance. Fueled by frequent infusions of food, Montalbano comes up with clever solutions to the strange goings-on, even as he’s less than adept at dealing with the women in his life. Agent: Donatella Barbieri, Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale (Italy).

July 15, 2015
A full plate of unsolved crimes is not enough to prevent a veteran Sicilian police inspector from flirting with disaster. Inspector Salvo Montalbano's day off is spoiled by bad dreams and the unexpected arrival of the island's deputy police commissioner. Though the visit is abruptly cancelled, Montalbano hauls his out-of-sorts form into the station anyway, where he feels more grounded. Later he goes to the opening of a new art gallery, "Il piccolo porto," where he finds a rare mutual attraction with the owner, Mariangela De Rosa. Uncharacteristically, Montalbano enters into an affair with Marian, the first time he's cheated on his longtime high-maintenance lady love, Livia. To banish his guilt, Montalbano dives into work, of which, fortunately, there's a surfeit. There's a bizarre case of a woman robbed at gunpoint and then kissed by the thief, a burglary at a nearby jewelry shop, a pair of Tunisian refugees on the loose in Sicily, and the murder of possible Mafioso Carmelo Savastano. But with all this in the mix, what Montalbano is most obsessed about is his "situation with Livia and Marian," the latter of whom surprises him by pressing for a relationship. Nevertheless, he probes the case of the kissing bandit, finding numerous inconsistencies in the account of the victim, Loredana di Marta, and follows up on the Tunisians. Still, an important personal decision looms. Montalbano's 19th outing has a more melancholy tone than his previous cases (Game of Mirrors, 2015, etc.) but also boasts a nifty, twisty mystery at its core.

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September 15, 2015
Occasionally, Camilleri throws a tragic curve at Sicilian police chief Salvo Montalbano, something beyond the usual run of thieves who can't shoot straight, the temptations of ladies eager to complicate his long-running, long-distance relationship with the ever-jealous Livia, and the bureaucrats who keep him from lunch at Enzo's Trattoria. This is one of those times, but the nature of that tragic curve won't be revealed here, except to say that it provides one of those reality-in-your-face moments that reveal Salvo's flaws as well as his outsize humanity. Leading up to that, we find the detective in more relationship trouble than usual: fetching art-gallery owner Marian looks to be the one who will finally cause Salvo to break it off with Livia. And there is that little matter of arms traffickers stockpiling weapons in the Sicilian countryside. Camilleri's special talent has always been for using the conventional police procedural as a frame around which to showcase our misguided attempts to get what we think we want from life. Perhaps because he is as misguided as the rest of us, the melancholy Salvo makes an irresistibly appealing observer of the human tragicomedy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)